CLEVELAND: Donald Trump made his first appearance at the Republican National Convention on Monday night, introducing his wife, Melania Trump, before her prime-time speech.

After a smoke-machine-aided entrance, Melania Trump spoke of her upbringing in Slovenia and talked about her husband’s role as a father to maker her case that Trump should be the 45th president.

"My husband is ready to lead this great nation. He is ready to fight every day to give our children the future they deserve," she said after an uncharacteristically brief introduction by her husband, who made an unannounced but not entirely unexpected appearance.

Melania Trump was preceded by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who delivered a red-meat speech to the delegates, criticizing President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on foreign policy and insinuating they are insufficiently supportive of police officers.

"The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe. They fear for their children, they fear for themselves, they fear for our police officers, who have a target on their backs," he said.

The two-term mayor of New York also painted Trump as someone who has rushed to help others after tragedies but wanted his name kept out of the headlines, fitting the convention strategy outlined by Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Sunday of describing "Trump, the man."

"I have known Donald Trump for almost 30 years, and he has accomplished great things in my city and all over the world," Giuliani said. "But beyond that is a man with a big heart. Every time New York suffered a tragedy, Donald Trump was there to help."

Trump’s media relations judgment was criticized on social media earlier in the night. The presumptive Republican nominee called in to The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel while Pat Smith, whose son Sean was killed in the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, deliver an emotional address to the delegates. Critics charged Trump took the spotlight off Smith, who connected with the crowd early in the Monday night program.

"Hillary Clinton is a woman, a mother, and grandmother of two, and I am a woman, a mother, and a grandmother of two. How could she do this to me? How could she do this to any American family?" Smith asked. "Donald Trump is everything Hillary Clinton is not."